


Time heals

by Trams



Series: 24 Ficlets in December! [15]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Ficlet, Friendship, Future Fic, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr, a tiny bit of angst, but mostly hopeful, sort of, there's also GuyKyle in this but only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 18:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8855794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trams/pseuds/Trams
Summary: I asked for happy prompts and got "Booster and Guy talk about Ted being dead" or something to that effect. I don't think my followers on tumblr understand the concept of "happy" anyway, that's why this is the way it is. It is a happy story despite the hint of angst, because it really is about moving on.





	

They said time healed all wounds and looking at Booster now Guy’s inclined to believe it. The man had come striding into Guy’s bar – bar number… Who’s even counting? He’s rebuilt it so many times, in so many places – with his blond hair still shining in the light but undeniably thinning at the top, and a bright smile that showed off the wrinkles in his face.

“So when have you been?” Guy asked, and pushed a bottle of beer over the counter to Booster.

The bar was usually emtpy this time of day, in between lunch but still an hour or two before the dinner rush, it was the reason they had picked that hour for their get togethers.

Booster gave him a look.

“What?” Guy asked. “We still doing that thing where we pretend you don’t travel in time doing whatever it is you do.” Guy took a drink from his own bottle and gave Booster a pointed look.

“I saw you, you,” he pointed at Booster with the bottle to emphasis, “ten years ago.” He put the bottle down. “I remember. My mind’s still sharp as a broken bottle,” he said and pointed at his own greying temple - “I look distinguished” Guy had said looking at himself in the mirror. “Should I be worrying about a possible parallax possession?” Kyle had asked, and Guy might have punched him in the arm, but lightly. Kyle had kissed him on the tip of the nose as an apology, and then demanded an apology for the arm punching.

“Fine fine,” Booster said, but smiled as he shook his head before taking a sip of the beer.

They drank and talked. They’d developed an easy camraderie over the years, getting together not just to watch football, but just brief visits every now and again to catch up with each other. Neither of them acknowledging that the visits grew more frequent as they lost old friends, and no longer losing them to the usual superhero stuff, but to actual old age. While they don’t acknowledge the real reason, their conversations often end up with them reminiscing about the old days, about their old frends.

They talk about Ted.

Doesn’t matter that it’s almost always memories they’ve talked about before, though after a while Booster started telling Guy about things Guy is almost 100 percent sure happened on trips Booster took to the past - trips he doesn’t go on anymore, at least not where he can be spotted, because it has gotten quite obvious that the man is older.

It has gotten easier for Booster to talk about Ted, now their reminiscing is only filled with laughter and smiles.

Guy had guessed the reason Booster opened up to Guy in the first pace was because he assumed – and rightly so – that Guy would understand because he had the experience. It wasn’t until much later, and only after Kyle had pointed it out, that perhaps Booster went to Guy because Guy was the only one he had who also knew Ted, and as unlikely as it had seemed at the time when it was pointed out to Guy, perhaps Booster considered Guy a friend. Guy of course did not bring this up to Booster, but it was at the back of his mind.

“He was a great friend,” Booster murmured. It didn’t have the hurt or the longing that had plagued Booster’s voice whenever he spoke of Ted in the beginning. Guy didn’t think the man would ever truly stop missing his friend, but he had managed to heal. Had managed to come to terms with the reality and accept it.

The two greatest loves of Guy’s life were Tora and Kyle. They had both died, and that was why Booster felt that Guy understood, and he did. Because their deaths had broken him in very similar ways, but they had both returned. When he and Tora eventually parted it wasn’t because she was dead, she had been very much alive and well. And Kyle, well Kyle was still there, and hopefully would be for as long as Guy lived, but Guy looked at Booster and saw a man who had healed and it was encouraging.

“He really was,” Guy said, before holding out his bottle towards Booster wo smiled and clinked his own bottle against’s Guy’s.

“For Ted,” Guy said.

“For Ted,” Booster said.


End file.
